Widow Claims Narcotics Cops Murdered Her Husband

A woman from Littlerock said Friday she plans to sue the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and Department of Coroner for the unjustified shooting of her 80-year-old husband in June during a search for methamphetamine.

Tonya Pate said deputies opened fire during a drug raid before they announced themselves, and probably killed Gene Mallory while he was still in bed.

"I don't want anybody to think or guess, I want them to know, that we didn't have crystal meth, we didn't deal crystal meth, and I want his name cleared," Pate said during a news conference at her lawyer's office in Pasadena.

No methamphetamine or precursor chemicals were found during a search of Mallory's property, and Pate's attorney Mark Algorri said he suspects the information deputies used to obtain a search warrant was bogus.

"It's beyond a tragic mistake," Algorri said. "We just don't know what they were thinking."

Court records show on June 25, 2013 L.A. County Sheriff's detective Patrick Hobbs obtained a warrant to search the Mallory home after swearing out an affidavit based on a citizen tip of a hidden meth lab on 177th Street East.

"In the past four days, I have survielled (sic) the location several times throughout the day...I could smell the strong odor of chemicals...and formed the expert opinion the chemical odor was emitting from the indicated property," Hobbs wrote.

L.A. Superior Judge Charles Chung authorized the search with no other evidence offered, and attorney Algorri said it doesn't make sense.

"You have to have correct information before you go in with a gun, especially where any information would have told them there was an 80-year-old man living here," Algorri told reporters.

A statement from the Sheriff's Department in June said deputies killed Mallory when he confronted them with a semi-automatic handgun.

Algorri said Mallory kept a .22 pistol in his bedroom but said Coroner's reports suggest evidence at the death scene was moved prior to the Coroner's investigator examining the body, so he's suspicious of a cover up.

The Sheriff's Department generally does not comment on pending civil lawsuits.